11Story

22 January 2010

Self portrait with crucifix

 

Self portrait with crucifix. Fujita Tsuguji (1886-1968). France, circa 1922 Photograph, Original etching, printed on paper. 49.8 x 32.5 cm © Trustees of the British Museum 1949, 0411, 0.2453 Photographer John Williams

After graduating in art from Tokyo, Tsuguji arrived in Paris in 1913 and spent most of his life in France except during the Second World War when he returned temporarily to Japan. That this self portrait indicates a serious approach to Christianity is not necessarily obvious, although confirmed much later by the artist’s conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1966, near the end of his life.   There is nothing in the treatment of the face to suggest spirituality even if the spectacles connote bookishness. But the positioning of the crucifix above the head, almost but not quite touching it in the flat plane of the picture, certainly creates a visual link between the man and his chosen faith. Perhaps there is a hint here of the convention, evident in the trio of Japanese prints also shown in this section of the exhibition, where thought is externalised (or, perhaps more accurately, sourced independently of head and face) to be represented somewhere above the head or full figure portrayed. In the print (to the LEFT) of a courtesan with the portrait of her Dutch lover, its lower left corner is so close to her head as immediately to convey a connection. The crucifix above Tsuguji could be fixed to the wall behind him but the proximity of its lower tip to the top of his head conveys exactly the same impression.

 
 
 

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